There is little doubt that 2016 has been the year of the underdog.
I blame Leicester City for getting the ball rolling. Their Premier League triumph gave encouragement to all other Davids that they could bring down a Goliath with a well-placed pebble and a bit of luck. Who would have imagined that an unholy alliance of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove would have persuaded a majority of the British population that they’d be better out of Europe that in it?
We Britons, of course, weren’t stupid enough to give them any real power after the event. We left that level of daftness to our American cousins, who engineered their own vote against the establishment by electing an orange-faced fool into the White House. Never mind that Dear Donald has the multi-cultural awareness of one of those house bricks with which he wants to build a 3,000-mile wall – never mind that he denies there is such a thing as greenhouse gases.
Given what has happened over the last six months, maybe we shouldn’t all be lumping on Andy Murray to win the BBC Sports Personality of The Year at the general 1/6. However, that would go against our traditional sense of fair play.
The Scot may have won the coveted award twice in the last three years but he has surpassed his exploits of 2013 and 2015 this year. He’s achieved victories at Wimbledon and in the Olympics before, of course, but has never ended a year as the world number one. Murray is in the form of his life yet still finds time to play for his country in Davis Cup. The only genuine alternatives to him among the SPOTY nominations are from the Olympics.
Cycling’s golden couple Laura and Jason Kenny are 25/1 (Stan James) and 100/1 respectively, while you can get 10/1 against triathlete Alastair Brownlee with Betway.
The latter defended his Olympic title in Rio but it was the pictures of him carrying stricken brother Jonny across the finishing line in a World Cup race which raised his profile in the eyes of many.
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Remarkably, Mo Farah has never won SPOTY and Britain’s most successful distance athlete is a best 20/1 this year (a best 11/2 in betting without Andy Murray) after yet another double gold in Rio. Wales’ football captain Gareth Bale is the only other though to have any sort of chance by bookmakers in an event first staged back in 1954.
Sports Personality Of The Year 2016 Current Best Odds
Andy Murray (1/6), Alastair Brownlee (10/1), Mo Farah (20/1), Laura Kenny (25/1), Gareth Bale (45/1), Nick Skelton, Jason Kenny, Max Whitlock and Jamie Vardy (100/1), Sophie Christiansen and Adam Peaty (250/1)
